Accidentally In Love
by broblovr1
Summary: Just like in the show, Meredith and Derek meet at Joe's. However they don't end up sleeping together. But they do see each other again and become friends. But, of course, we'll see how long that lasts...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy. I just like to borrow the characters and sometimes storylines and sometimes even the lines. But I don't own it.**

**Okay. This is a new story from me. I didn't like the other new one that I started so I deleted it. Maybe if a new idea for how that one should go comes to me I'll restart it. But for now, I'm going to work on this and They Call Him Dr. McDreamy. This story is going to be more true to the show and I want to try to represent the characters how they are in the show. So…without further ado…**

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_"You're smile just captured me…"_

Derek Shepherd didn't do bars. Bars were Mark's thing. Mark used to them to pick up drunk woman, sleep with him and then drop them. Not Derek. But despite his normal habits, that was where he found himself that night. He watched as friends and couples and groups came in and out of the bar. He had no particular interest until one person entered and caught his eye. A beautiful, petite blonde girl entered the bar, alone, and headed directly to the bar.

He didn't know what it was about her, but something peaked his interest. Perhaps it was the fact that she looked like no matter what, she'd be able to hold her own. Or the "I don't give a damn" look on her face. But there was one thing that Derek knew. He wanted to…no…he needed to know her. He needed to know what made her smile and what made her cry and what her goals were.

"Double scotch single malt please" Derek said to the bartender as he approached the bar and the little blonde sitting there who seemed to be able to hold an enormous amount of liquor, "So, is this a good place to hang out?" he asked, trying to strike up a conversation with her.

"I would know. Never been here before," She said sounding uninterested

"Ya know, I haven't either. First time here."

She just turned away, downing her second shot of tequila

"Ah. You're ignoring me," he said, taking a sip of his drink.

"I'm…trying to," she answered matter-of-factly.

"You shouldn't ignore me."

"Why not?" she retorted.

"Because I'm someone you need to get to know to love."

She couldn't help but crack a smile at his cocky confidence. A smile, that in turn, made Derek smile too.

"Really?" she asked, turning towards him for the first time since they started talking.

"Oh yes."

"So if I know you I'll love you?"

"Oh yes."

She just laughed at what she thought was just another cheesy attempt to pick her up. An infectious laugh that made Derek laugh too. This girl, whoever she was, was amazing.

"I'm Derek Shepherd," he said extended his hand to her.

"Meredith Grey," she said, giving him the hand that wasn't occupied by a shot glass full of tequila.

"Okay Meredith. What's your story?"

"I don't have a story," she answered, "I'm just a girl in a bar."

"I'm just a guy in a bar."

Neither of them said anything but it wasn't awkward. Derek sipped his scotch while Meredith continued taking shots.

"So does it always rain like this?" he said when he realized she wasn't going to talk willingly.

"You just moved here?" she asked as the bartender filled her glass

"I've been here for two weeks and I've barely seen the sun."

"It is Seattle. You have to have known that before you moved here. Or are you one of those people who doesn't know where they're going when they leave?"

Derek laughed, "No. I knew where I was going. But I'm from New York. The air is dirty and disgusting, but you don't need to be wearing a raincoat all the time."

Meredith just raised her eyebrows and nodded her head. She had been trying to ignore this man but the more he spoke, even when talking about smog, he was charming. And he was handsome. Tall, dark and handsome and had perfect hair. She was hooked.

"Then I suggest you get a good raincoat," Meredith replied, smiling.

He just laughed and shook his head. Something about this girl was irresistible and he was determined to get to know her.

Derek finished his drink, "I think I'm going to call it a night."

"Can't hang with the big boys?" she said, downing another shot.

He smiled and laughed to himself, "As much as I'd love to stay here, I have a special project at work tomorrow morning. It was nice to meet you Meredith Grey."

"You too Derek Shepherd."

Not wanting to, but knowing he had to, Derek walked out of the bar. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't get Meredith out of his head. The thoughts that were running through his head were not thoughts that a married man was supposed to be having.

_"You were in my future far as I could see…"_

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**Can you guess what Derek's special project is? You'll have to wait and see! I really like the start of this story. I must say, I'm proud of it. So, here it is. They meet. And you'll have to see what happens next. These updates are going to be farther apart than my other story just because I want it to be really good and accurately portray the characters, like I said before. Read and Review!!!!!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's. No I don't. **

**This chapter is pretty self explanatory, so I won't explain. Thanks for all the reviews and for reading my new story!! I have a whole bunch of ideas so hopefully I won't get stuck like I am on my other story. I hope it's not boring and not completely cliché. And I hope it accurate portrays Mer and Der. But only you can tell me that, so when you review, tell me!**

_"And I feel just like I'm living someone else's life…"_

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Meredith Grey was the last person who Derek expected to see when he got to work in the morning. He had spent the night tossing and turning trying to get her out of his head but to no avail. For the past 12 hours, her face was the only image in his head, so when he saw the back of the little blonde head sitting in the chief's office, where he had just been paged to, he assumed he was dreaming.

"Ahhh. Derek. Good. You're here," the chief said, standing up, "Meredith, this is Dr. Shepherd. He's going to be showing you around today. You'll probably be assigned to him for a couple of days until you get caught up.

Meredith stood up and turned around to see the man who she had met in the bar the previous night. A night from which she still had a headache.

"Dr. Shepherd?" Meredith asked.

"Derek, this is Dr. Meredith Grey. She is starting the intern program a week late. She had some…personal business to attend to so today you are going to be responsible for her. Showing her what the other interns learned last week," explained Dr. Webber.

"Nice to see you again Meredith," Derek said with a smirk.

"You two know each other?" Dr. Webber asked confused.

"We've met," Meredith said stoically.

She hadn't counted on running into the man who she had flirted with and been extremely attracted to, let alone end up having to work for him for a 48-hour shift.

"Derek, I want you to introduce her to the other attendings and of course to Dr. Bailey, because she's her resident. Then we'll get her started with a patient."

"Thanks Richard," Derek said, walking out of the room, Meredith following him.

"You know, drinking enormous amounts of tequila the night before you start a new job, probably not the best idea."

"Very funny Dr. Shepherd." Meredith replied sarcastically.

"Okay then," Derek said trying not to laugh, "Let's find Dr. Bailey."

After asking several other people where to find her, Derek and Meredith finally found Dr. Bailey at a nurse's station on the 3rd floor. It looked like she was yelling at another doctor who because of Dr. Bailey, looked like he was going to vomit right then and there. He walked away like a puppy with his tail between his legs. Derek approached her without hesitation.

"Dr. Bailey, I have somebody you'd probably like to meet."

She turned around looking less than amused, "What is it Shepherd?"

"This is Meredith Grey. She is a week late in joining the internship program so she's going to be with me for a couple days. Catching up. I just thought you'd like to meet the newest addition to your group."

Dr. Bailey looked at Meredith. She was eyeing her like game on a hunting trip.

"Grey, just because you're with Dr. Shepherd doesn't mean that you don't have to follow _my _rules," she handed Meredith a pager and continued her speech, "You're first shift starts now and lasts 48 hours. You're a runt. Bottom of the surgical food chain. You run labs, write orders, work every second night until you drop and don't complain. Anything else you can think of Dr. Shepherd?"

"I think you've covered the basics. I can take it from here," Derek answered, always amused at Dr. Bailey's speech to her new interns.

"Good," Dr. Bailey started to walk away before turning around again, "Oh and Grey, nice to meet you."

Meredith just nodded and followed Derek as he started to walk away.

"They call her the Nazi," he said as Meredith caught up to him.

They continued their tour through the hospital, meeting all the doctors who Meredith was going to have to work with.

"So, you told me that you didn't have a story," Derek said as they got into an elevator.

"What? I don't."

"You are Ellis Grey's daughter."

"Oh. Yeah, but I usually don't tell strangers that I meet in bars who my mother is. Plus I didn't here you telling me that you were a doctor."

"Touche," he replied as they got off the elevator.

"Derek," said a woman's voice who Meredith didn't recognize as Dr. Bailey or any of the other doctors who she had already met.

Meredith looked to the right to see a tall, red-haired doctor walking towards her and Derek. She had legs as long as the Nile, her hair was perfectly straight and her makeup was flawless.

"Meredith, this is Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd, head of obstetrics and gynecology," Derek said, introducing the two women.

"Shepherd?" Meredith asked confused.

"You must be the woman who my husband is responsible for showing around the hospital this week."

"Meredith Grey," she said, shaking Addison's hand.

It was a pretty uncomfortable moment for all of them. Derek had been flirting with Meredith with no regard, and had failed to mention that he had a wife. A beautiful wife who also happened to be a doctor,

"As much as I'd love to stay and chat, I've got to get to the delivery room," she turned to Derek, "Dinner tonight at Chez Francoise?"

"I can't tonight Addie. I'm supposed to be with Meredith for her whole shift."

"Okay" she sighed, as Derek gave her an awkward kiss on the cheek and she walked away.

"You're married," Meredith said, turning towards Derek.

"On paper," he muttered under his breath, "Yeah. I'm married."

Derek's marriage to Addison was anything but perfect. But right now, his life couldn't be better. He had met Meredith and right now, that was all he needed.

_"Like I just stepped outside and everything was going right…"_

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**So yeah. They're working together. And Derek is on "Meredith patrol" I guess you could say. At least for now he is. And Derek is married. But Meredith's there and he feels something but he doesn't know what he feels and he just met her so he's kind of like what?? Yup. I'm going to stop talking now. Oh wait, one more thing: this is kind of from Derek's POV but not really. More probably tomorrow but I don't know so don't hold me to it. Read and Review!!!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy. **

**I hope you all liked the last chapter. I think that I did a good job making it like to show. At least a little bit? Maybe? So this chapter just continues Meredith's first shift. A little background: Meredith already met the other interns before they started because in my story, they had to meet before they started working together, so George and Izzie already live in the house. **

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_"She's a mystery, she's too much for me…"_

The first 24-hours of Meredith's shift were relative uneventful. She had spent some time in the pit doing sutures while Derek checked on his patients. It was something that he said was "important for interns to experience on the first day." When Derek was done with whatever he had to do, he came back down to get Meredith so she could be introduced to one more doctor: Mark Sloan. Plastic surgeon.

"Derek!" Mark yelled from down the hall.

"That would be Mark," Derek said.

He placed his hand lightly on Meredith's elbow guiding her down the wall to where Mark was standing, most likely flirting with the nurses. The feeling of his skin on hers sent shivers through both of their bodies. He looked at her to see the same look on her eyes that he figured was on his face. As quickly as he had placed it there and as apprehensive as he was, Derek removed his hand, fearing that if he kept it there he wouldn't be responsible for where it wandered.

"So is this the hot new intern?" Mark interrupted.

"Meredith, this is Mark Sloan, head of plastics."

"You were right man," Mark said, slapping Derek on the back.

"Right about what?" Meredith asked curiously, turning to Derek.

"Nothing," Derek said, "Meredith, how about we go get something to eat."

Mark just laughed at how uncomfortable Derek looked. This wasn't the Derek that he knew. Around Addison he was calm, but around Meredith he seemed agitated but, not in a bad way. He decided to let it slide for the moment, considering it was Meredith's first day and Addison was liable to approach at any moment.

"Don't try anything with her Shep. The new interns are my territory." He said before going back to his usual activity of attempting to seduce the female members of the hospital staff.

"So is sleeping with Mark Sloan like a right of passage in this hospital?" Meredith asked, noticing how all the nurses and doctors looked at him.

"You could say that," Derek replied.

"Well then I guess it's my turn, right?"

Derek couldn't help but feel a pang of jealously when Meredith mentioned sleeping with Mark. Not only was he jealous, but slightly sick to his stomach thinking about another man's hands on her. Married men weren't supposed to be jealous of other women sleeping with another guy. But Meredith wasn't just another woman. She was something to him. But he didn't no quite what that something was just yet.

They headed down to the cafeteria, the touch and look they had shared and the conversation about Mark Sloane lingering in both of their minds. Meredith had seen the look on Derek's face when she mentioned sleeping with him. She didn't know exactly what it was. Pain, jealousy or just plain old concern. But whatever it was, she was glad that he cared.

They each grabbed a cafeteria tray and went through the line, picking out their food. Derek criticizing everything that Meredith chose. As soon as they had paid they found an empty table and began to eat.

"So what's it like to be Ellis Grey's daughter?" Derek asked as he opened up a bottle of water.

"It's not all it's cracked up to be." She answered, sounding bitter.

Derek could tell that this was sensitive subject for her. Before he had brought up her mother, she had been happy and laughing but the moment he said her name, Meredith's face dropped. It hurt Derek to think about her being unhappy.

"So, have you met the other interns?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah. There was a thing."

"A thing?"

"A thing," Meredith answered, "When we met."

"Well thanks for clearing that up," Derek said sarcastically.

Meredith couldn't help but giggle, "No problem. Actually, Izzie and George and I. We're roommates."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. They needed a place to stay. And I had an empty house."

"Won't that get annoying? I mean, you're with them all of them and now you're going to have to live with them?"

"That's exactly what I said. But they bothered me until I caved."

"Ah, so you're a pushover." Derek teased.

"I am not…" Meredith was cut off by the sound of Derek's pager beeping.

"Come on," he said, quickly standing up and motioning for Meredith to follow him.

They left the cafeteria and headed to the ER. Food forgotten but most definitely not the moment they had shared earlier. Both Derek and Meredith knew they were feeling something. Something unfamiliar. Something that felt a lot like falling in love.

_"But I keep coming back for more…"_

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**I don't know how well I'm doing in showing Mer and Der's mounting attraction for each other. If you have any suggestions, let me know. I really like Mark in this. I think it's just like Mark. But at the same time, I'm feeling really insecure about my writing right now. Some people are so much better than me so I feel inferior. But reviews. Lots and lots of reviews. They always make me feel better. And snow days. Which tomorrow might be one, so if I get lots and lots of reviews then you'll get updates.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy. Wish I did, but I don't. **

**So today is sort of a snow day because schools let out early. But I didn't go anyway because I don't feel good. And I did promise an update if it was a snow day. And I almost always keep my promises. Oh, and I have no idea about all this medical stuff. So I'm copying it from the show. So you'll probably recognize some of the cases. But if I didn't use that, it would make no sense and I would have to put medical like they do in the script before the smart doctor people come in.**

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_"Every time I breathe I take you in…"_

Meredith struggled to match Derek's pace as they rushed into the ER. They got there just a stretcher wielding what looked to be a teenage girl came hurrying in. The fact that she was about to treat her first real patient hit Meredith like a car crash. And a really bad one at that. Her heart started to race and her palms became sweaty, but before she could think about it anymore, Derek's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"What have we got?" he asked the EMT standing on the other side of the gurney.

Before when they had been sitting and talking in the cafeteria, Derek was relaxed. He was charming. This was a side of him Meredith hadn't yet seen. He was a take-charge neurosurgeon. And it turned her on, making her wonder about the other places where he was a take-charge kind of guy.

Patient. We have a patient. She reminded herself instead of letting her mind go any farther.

"Katie Bryce. 15-year old female. Starting grand mal seizing as we approached." The EMT explained as the moved her onto a bed.

"Let's get her on her side," Derek directed, "Meredith, 10 milligrams Diazepam IM. And a large bore IV. Don't let the blood hemolyze. Let's go!"

Meredith did exactly as she was told. No sooner had she administered the meds then Katie stop seizing and her heartbeat and blood pressure stabilized. Meredith took a deep breath and looked over the table at Derek.

He put his stethoscope back around his neck and looked up to see her staring straight at him, "Nice job everyone…Let's um…page…Dr. Bailey," he said to one of the nurses standing nearby, barely able to get a sentence out while looking in Meredith's eyes.

About 4 minutes later, the short, intimidating doctor that Meredith had met earlier in her shift approached with Izzie, George and Cristina following close behind her, "What do you need Shepherd?"

"Katie Bryce. Started seizing as the ambulance approached the hospital." Derek said.

"What do you wanna do?"

"Let's shotgun her."

"That means every test in the book," Dr. Bailey explained, "CT, CBC, chem-7, tox screen. Cristina, you're on labs, George, get Katie for a CT, Izzie, patient history and, Meredith, you're with Dr. Shepherd."

Meredith followed Derek into the elevator as they headed up to CT to get Katie's results. Derek sat down at the computer and began looking at Katie's scans as they came up on the screen, not saying a word.

"She's a pain the ass," George said joining them.

"That might be true, but her scans are clear so something else is causing her seizures," Derek said speaking for the first time since they got there, "Meredith, I want you to go with George and the other interns and be sure to keep an eye on Katie."

Later in the day, Meredith was sitting with all of the other interns in a hiding spot they had found in an abandoned hallway with a bunch of old hospital beds. Just as Meredith was about to sit down and have at least a moment of quiet her pager started to beep. She looked down at it: _911 Katie Bryce. _She had already been paged once by Katie, only to get there to have the girl tell her that she couldn't sleep and was annoyed because the hospital didn't have cable so she couldn't watch the Spokane Teen Miss pageant.

"Damn it, Katie," she muttered, starting up the stairs.

As she got to the top of the steps, Meredith realized that this time it was no joke. She could hear machines beeping and nurses standing around Katie's bed yelling orders at one another. Meredith ran into Katie's room, only to see her once again having grand mal seizures, with all of the nurses looking at her to make a decision of what to do.

"Dr. Grey, are you listening to me? She's got Diazepam. Two milligrams Lorazepam. I just gave the second dose…Dr. Grey, you need to tell us what you want to do…Dr. Grey!" she heard as panic set over her entire body.

_"And my heart beats again…"_

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**It's taking me forever to write these chapters, so I hope it's worth it! I want to make this good and not rushed so that's why I'm putting a lot of effort into it. I also have nothing else to do today. I think there'll be another update tonight. And maybe one for They Call Him Dr. McDreamy. But don't hold me to it.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy. **

**The last chapter was a lot like what happened in the show on the interns first shift with Katie. And this chapter I guess will sort of be too. But then it's probably going to be more on Meredith and Derek's relationship than the medical stuff because I am definitely not a doctor. And I'm not going to be a doctor. But sometimes when I watch Grey's I want to become a doctor.**

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"_We stand just a little too close…"_

Meredith could hear her heart pounding over the sounds of the other doctors and the beeping of all of the machines hooked up to Katie. She had been through 4 years of medical school to prepare her for this moment and now she had no idea what the hell to do. She ordered for different drugs to be administered and watched as none of them had any effect on Katie, who just continued to seize.

"You paged Dr. Shepherd?" she asked.

"I just told you!"

"Well page him again, stat."

Just as Meredith was ordering for Derek to be paged again, the sound of Katie Bryce flat lining filled the room. She stood there in shock as the nurses ran around the room. It was like she was moving in the slow motion as "Code Blue" was yelled and a crash cart was quickly pushed into the room. Meredith snapped herself out of her stupor and rushed over to the crash cart, hoping to save the life of the teenage girl lying helpless in front of her.

"Charge pads to 200," she ordered, rubbing the paddles together.

Meredith felt like she was in a bad dream. The kind of dream where you show up in high school completely naked. But instead she showed up at the hospital without her scrubs. And with no idea how to treat patients. Like the four years of medical school she had just endured had all gone to crap. She shocked Katie three times as the nurses rushed around her doing everything they could to help. But there was no result.

"At 60 seconds you're supposed to admin another drug," said Tyler, one of the nurses.

"Charge again," Meredith said, and in turn received glares from the rest of the staff in the room, "Charge again," she repeated.

Meredith shocked Katie's body one more time. This time when she looked up she heard the machines begin to beep and the nurses telling her that her heart rate was coming back up and blood pressure was returning.

"What the hell happened?" Derek asked, rushing into the room.

"She had a seizure and her heart stopped," Meredith told him, completely out of breath.

"A seizure? You were supposed to be monitoring her," he said as he pushed past her to get to Katie's bedside.

"I checked on her and she…"

Derek cut her off, "I got her. Just…just go…somebody give me her chart please…" Meredith heard him say as she walked out the door, walking away from what just happened, ignoring the stares and whispers as she passed.

"_We stare just a little too long…"_

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**This is short because it's going to be in two parts. It's too much to put all in one chapter. Next part will either be up later tonight or tomorrow.** **Read and Review!!!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy.**

**I know the last chapter was exactly like the show but I've been having a really hard time writing since Thursday's episode because it was so amazing. I don't think any writer can ever top that. Except Shonda. Because I thought she couldn't top the super bowl episode and the season finale, but, she did.**

"_It's always have and never hold…"_

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All of the tests that had been run on Katie had been negative. And all of the x-rays, CT's and MRI's had come up empty. Nobody had any answers as to why Katie Bryce was continuing to have seizures. It was Derek Shepherd's job to figure it out and as much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't do it on his own. He gathered all the residents and their interns in one room hoping that they could help him solve the mystery that was Katie Bryce.

He decided to do something that was extremely rare for a surgeon – ask the interns for help. He explained Katie's case to them, putting emphasis on the fact that if she wasn't diagnosis soon, she'd be dead. He gave them Katie's chart and then walked out of the room after one last glance at Meredith.

"What was that all about?" Cristina asked as they each grabbed a copy of the chart.

"What?" Meredith asked, confused.

"That look between you and McDreamy."

"Who?"

"Shepherd. He's tall and handsome with perfect hair."

"Oh…um…there was…there was no look" Meredith stuttered.

"Okay Meredith. Whatever you say," Cristina said sarcastically.

Cristina and Meredith headed off to research Katie's condition and hopefully come up with a diagnosis. They flipped through book after book, read report after report and looked up case after case but still came up with no answers. This was Meredith's first case and of course she wanted to save Katie's life, no matter how much of a brat the teenage girl seemed to be. But she thought that if she wasn't the one to figure out what was wrong with Katie that Derek would be disappointed in her. He was married. He was in love with another woman. He didn't belong to her. But still, she wanted him to be proud of her. Even thought that pride couldn't lead to anything.

"What if we can't come up with anything?" Meredith asked putting down what seemed to be the 80th book she'd opened in the past hour.

"You mean what if she dies?"

"She's my first patient."

"This is going to sound really bad but I really wanted that surgery." Cristina sighed.

"Well, if we ever find out what's wrong with her, I won't fight you for the surgery. You can have it."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. I've been with Shepherd for 40 hours. I don't need to be in the OR with him too," Meredith lied.

They started to talk and laugh about Katie competing in beauty pageants and her talent being rhythmic gymnastics. Meredith's mouth dropped and her eyes got wide when she realized exactly what was wrong with Katie.

"What? Meredith, what is it?"

"She…she fell. She was babbling and she told me that she was competing and she fell."

"Aneurysm," Cristina said as they jumped up to go find Derek.

They caught up with Derek just as he was about to get on an elevator. Cristina explained their theory to him. It took some convincing but Derek finally agreed to run the tests that would reveal whether or not she did indeed have an aneurysm. Katie was brought down to the high power MRI and sure enough, Meredith and Cristina had been right.

Derek informed Katie's parents of what was going on and told Meredith that she was going to be one to scrub in.

"I can't believe this," Cristina said.

"Cristina," Meredith tried to explain.

"No. No. I didn't get into medical school because I have a famous mother and I don't get picked for surgeries for flirting with my boss," Cristina spat before walking away.

Meredith walked up to Derek in the room next to the OR as he was preparing Katie for surgery.

"Derek, did you pick me to scrub in because we met…and flirted last night?"

"Yes," Derek said before seeing the look on Meredith's face, "No. I picked you because on your very first day, being behind the other interns, and with very little training, you saved Katie's life."

Katie's surgery was amazing. Derek had let Meredith watch as he clipped the aneurysm. She had never felt anything like that in her life. She scrubbed out, made up with Cristina and was getting in the elevator to head home when she saw a familiar hand stop the doors from closing.

"That was amazing," Meredith said leaning against the side of the elevator.

"Yeah," Derek said looking up from typing on his PDA.

"I mean, I don't know why anybody does drugs."

"Yeah," Derek agreed, nodding at the beautiful woman who had instantly changed his life.

"Will it always be like that?" she asked as Derek came over to her side of the elevator.

"Pretty close. But you never forget your first time." He answered moving closer to Meredith.

Before either of them could say anymore, they're lips came together. First kisses were sometimes awkward, but there was nothing awkward about this kiss. It felt like something they had been doing for their whole life. Derek had Meredith pinned up against the elevator wall while her hands were tangled in his hair. Their tongues battled for control but just a quickly as the kiss had began it stopped when Meredith pulled away.

"We can't do this. You're married. Wife."

"I'm married."

"We can't kiss. We just…"

Before Meredith could finish her sentence Derek once again had her pinned up against the wall, this kiss a little more fierce. He cupped her face with his hands while hers were on his chest. He ran his hands through her hair as their tongues started to play once more. This time the elevator was the reason for the end of the kiss as the bell dinged to signify it's arrival in the lobby.

"Um...Goodnight Derek," Meredith said quickly gathering her stuff and rushing out of the elevator.

"Goodnight Meredith," Derek chuckled as he put his hands to his mouth, savoring the feeling of her lips on his.

"_You've begun to feel like home…"_

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**THEY KISSED! WAHOO! I don't really have that much to say. This isn't very good if you compare it to the actual show. But, what can I say, I try. I know I kind of rushed this. And just added the little thing about Mer and Cristina making up but I didn't want to drag this day out any longer because it was getting to be too much. But I kind of thought it was necessary to get the story started. Click that cute little purple button and review!!!! Probably have more tomorrow! **


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy even though I wish I did.**

**There is one good reason why I haven't updated: Nothing could EVER beat the last three episodes and I didn't even want to try. But now that they're over (and were freaking amazing!) and we don't have a new episode for 3 weeks, I have an update for you! So I'll recap you. Meredith and Derek kissed. That's all you need to know.**

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"_I'd give it all, I'd give for us…"_

The only reason that Meredith had succeeded in avoiding Derek was that she didn't have to work the next day. By doing that, she had also succeeded in avoiding the discussion that they would inevitably have about the kiss they had shared. The amazing kiss that neither of them had been able to forget about since it happened. Meredith's roommates just assumed that she was distracted and tired after what had happened during her first shift, so they didn't question her about her mood. But Addison noticed a change in Derek's mood. He was happy. He hadn't acted like this for a very long time.

"Derek, what's going on with you?"

"What are you talking about Addison?" Derek asked, practically whistling as he got dressed for bed.

"You're smiling."

"Yeah. It's called happiness. I understand why you wouldn't recognize it."

Addison sat up in bed, closing her book and taking her glasses off. The man who stood in front of her was not the husband that she had been living with for years. Somewhere down the line their relationship had changed.

"This isn't the Derek I know. The Derek I know mopes around and never smiles."

"Things change Addison. Things change" he answered as he got into bed.

"What kinds of things?" Addison asked suspiciously, Meredith Grey being the farthest thing from her mind.

"I don't want to talk about this right now. I've had a long day Addison. Can't we just go to sleep?" Derek replied, just wanting to go to sleep and dream about the woman who had changed his life in one moment.

"And we're back to the old Derek," she muttered, rolling over in bed and once again going to sleep without so much as a goodnight kiss from her husband of eleven years.

Just as Addison had done with Derek, Cristina noticed that something was up with Meredith. Izzie and George had attributed it to a post-surgery high from her first shift, but Cristina knew different.

"What the hell is up with you Meredith?" Cristina asked, sitting next to Meredith at Joe's.

"Nothing," she answered, swallowing another shot.

"That's crap Grey. Tell me what's going on. Because if you don't, I'll find out. You know I will. So spill."

"I kissed Derek" Meredith admitted, putting her head down on the bar.

"You kissed McDreamy?"

"In an elevator."

"You kissed McDreamy in an elevator?" Cristina repeated.

"It was…he's a good kisser…a _very _good kisser…he was…" Meredith said.

"Stop. Right now. I do not need to hear about your tonsil hockey with my boss. Our boss."

"I don't know what to do." Meredith signed.

"What to do about what?" Cristina asked, "It was one kiss."

"He's married. I like him. I'm not supposed to like my boss. My very married boss. Very married to a beautiful doctor who makes me feel hideous. But I like him. And we kissed." Meredith said, continuing to ramble.

"You're screwed," Cristina said as she drank her beer.

Meredith dreaded going to work the next morning. Not only did she have a hangover from her night of drinking at Joe's with Cristina, but she knew she was going to see Derek. Which meant she was going to want to kiss Derek again. And again. She was getting in the elevator to go up to the locker room when, just like two days before, a familiar hand stopped the doors from closing.

"Good morning Meredith," Derek said in his usual chipper tone.

"It's too early to be a good morning," Meredith groaned, still getting used to her hours as an intern.

"It's always a good morning when you see me."

Meredith couldn't keep herself from laughing. She had been in the crabbiest mood when she woke up that morning but just seeing Derek and hearing his voice had changed her day immensely.

"Ahh. Very arrogant today aren't we?"

"Not arrogant. Confident." he said, giving her that irresistible smile.

"Whatever," Meredith said rolling her eyes.

After a few moments of silence, Derek spoke again, "Should we, ya know, talk about the kiss?"

Right after he said it, he regretted it. He had gotten Meredith to loosen up and now, just mentioning the kiss, he could see her tense up.

"There's nothing to talk about. We kissed. And it can't happen again. You're married and you're my boss. Therefore, we can't kiss. It was…we just…"

"It was what?" Derek asked curiously.

"The kiss…I mean…you felt it too right? You feel this. This whatever it is. Don't you?" Meredith said, looking Derek in the eye for the first time since he got onto the elevator.

"Yeah I do."

"Okay. I just thought I was imagining something. But then we kissed and then it was…but you're married. And I have to see your wife everyday. And I'm going to feel guilty. So we definitely cannot kiss again."

"Meredith," Derek chuckled, "You're rambling."

"I know. Bad habit," she said.

"I know I'm married. But things with Addison me haven't been the same for a long time. And I don't regret kissing you."

"Me either."

"We could be friends," Derek suggested.

"I don't know if I could do that. I don't know if I could just be friends with you." Meredith admitted.

"We could. I'm a good friend. You'd be lucky to have me. We could meet. Have coffee. Have meaningful discussions about the complex nature of our existence. Might be fun. We could be friends Meredith." Derek said, almost begging.

"I don't know Derek. We…"

Before she could continue he cut her off, "Give me a chance Meredith. Please."

Meredith took a deep breath, "Just friends?"

"Just friends," Derek said smiling.

Friends. They could do friends.

"_Give anything but I won't give up…"_

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**I really like this chapter. I don't have anything else to say. So, how about you let me know that you think! Read and Review!!! **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I don't own Grey's Anatomy because if I did I would at least get a copy of People Magazine with Paddy and the twins, and right now, I can't find it anywhere.**

**I know I know. I haven't updated in a long time. I've been really stressed out and lots of kind crappy things going on but I felt like writing tonight. So that is precisely what I am doing. One thing to remember in this story, Derek's family lives nearby and not in Maine or Connecticut or something. When we last left off, if you don't remember because it's been so long, Meredith and Derek decided to be friends after kissing in the elevator. But as well all know, it won't be that easy, because well, they're Meredith and Derek and they belong together. **

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_"I was so afraid of going under…"_

Being friends would be easy. How hard could it be? They would do friendly friend things. Hang out and have coffee. Talk. Get to know each other. They both had friends of the opposite sex. But never anything like this. There wasn't this attraction and this forbidden…something that they both felt. They couldn't be with each other even if they gave in and admitted that's how they were feeling. Derek was married. Till death do us part married. And Meredith, she wasn't going to try to change that. No matter how bad she might want to.

They had been friends for a week and so far it was going smoothly, with no secret elevator kisses. Last Friday night had been movie night. Izzie, George and Cristina all had to work so it was just Meredith and Derek, laughing and having fun. Being friends.

Meredith was filling out paperwork at the nurses station with Derek when she heard a child scream, "UNKY DEWEK!!!"

She turned around a saw a little brown haired boy half toddling, half running up to Derek and jumping into his arms. Apparently there were things Meredith didn't know about Derek. Such as, he's an uncle.

"Hey buddy!" Derek said, as a woman, who Meredith assumed to be the child's mother, approached them.

"Sorry about that Der" the unknown woman said.

Der. Meredith didn't know this woman. And she sure as hell didn't like her calling him Der. She shouldn't care. He was a married man. But that was her name for him and as far as she was concerned, nobody else was permitted to call him that.

"No problem Nance," Derek said, as he hugged the woman as best as he could while still holding the child in his arms, "What are you doing here?"

"Addison called me. Wanted me to observe surgery on a TTTS case."

Meredith felt a twinge in her chest just at the mention of Derek's wife.

"So you brought Matt with you?"

"About that. I asked Addie what your schedule was and she said you were off… "Nancy looked down at her watch, "…Now. So I thought you would watch him."

"You know I would never turn down a chance to watch my favorite nephew," Derek said, tickling the little boy, "Where are the other little rascals?"

"They all had play dates. Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Of course not."

Nancy looked at Meredith curiously. She had been standing there watching Derek and listening to the conversation the whole time.

"I'm Nancy Connors, Dr. Shepherd's sister." Nancy said, extending her hand to Meredith.

"Oh, sorry" Derek said, "Nancy this is a good friend of mine, Meredith Grey."

"Grey? As in, Ellis?"

"Afraid so," Meredith said in the same tone she always did when somebody brought up her mother.

"It was nice to meet you Meredith. I've gotta get going to the surgery or Addie will have my head. Thanks for watching Matt, Derek. I'll be by to pick him up as soon as possible. Trailer right?"

"Actually, Meredith, you're off too, and you're house is a little bit more kid friendly, would you mind?" Derek asked, grinning like a little kid asking their parents for candy or a new toy. The smile that she could never resist, the one that made her kiss him in the elevator.

"Okay," she said reluctantly.

Nancy rushed off to meet Addison and the OR and Meredith went to the locker room to change back into her street clothes and met Derek in the parking lot. He looked like he was playing tag with his nephew as they ran around in circles on the asphalt. Meredith stood and watched the cute scene as Derek caught up to his nephew and engulfed him in a hug. Derek finally noticed Meredith standing there and put Matt back down.

"Hey Mer. Ready to go?"

"Yeah…" she said a bit hesitantly, reaching into her purse for her keys.

"Great. Let me just get Matt in his car seat and I'll meet you at your house."

Meredith got into her car and began to drive home, thinking about Derek's family. She hadn't known he had a sister, let alone nieces and nephews. For the life of her, she didn't know why she had agreed to help baby-sit. Meredith didn't baby-sit. In fact, she had never even been baby-sat. She had practically raised herself, her mother off at the hospital doing surgeries every hour of the day. And here she was, agreeing to help watch the nephew of the man who she wished was hers but was married to another woman, who also happened to be a doctor.

Derek and Meredith spent a lot of time playing with Matt. They ate macaroni and cheese for dinner and had ice cream for dessert. They watched the Lion King until Matt fell asleep on the couch. Once he was out, they went into the kitchen so talking wouldn't wake him up.

"So there are a lot of things I don't know about you," Meredith said sitting on the kitchen counter and grabbing one of Izzie's cupcakes.

"What do you mean? You know me."

"I didn't know you had a family."

"Everyone has a family," Derek said, standing across from her.

"Technically. But they aren't there. My dad…he left and well, and my mom, she…"

"She what?" Derek asked, leaning against the counter.

"She wasn't there for me. I practically raised myself. No brothers or sisters."

"You don't have any siblings?"

"No. But apparently you do. Nancy seems…nice."

"I have three sisters," Derek told her.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. And they're all doctors. Nancy's an OB/GYN, Kathleen's a psychiatrist and Erin's a cardiologist. And they all have kids. I have 9 nieces and…5 nephews."

"That's a lot of kids."

"Yeah. But I love them. I love kids. I want kids. Addison she…she's not ready for kids," Derek admitted.

The kid thing was something Derek didn't usually discuss. It was a sensitive subject and one of the reasons his reason to Addison was so strained. Derek wanted a house full of kids. But whenever he mentioned it, Addison would always she that she wasn't ready. Now wasn't the right time.

"Do you want kids?" he asked Meredith.

"I…I don't know. I mean, my mother…I don't want to be like my mother. I'm a surgeon. I don't want my kids to turn out the way I did. I'd be an awful mother anyway."

"I don't think so. I think you'd be a great mother. Any man would be crazy to not want kids with you," Derek said, looking oh so good leaning against the counter.

It was times like these that made her want to jump him. Times like these that made being friends extremely difficult.

_"But now the weight of the world feels like nothing…"_

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**I only got 3 or 4 reviews for the last chapter. That was very disappointing. Almost crying disappointing. So I want more, more, more. Please? Let me know how well I'm doing portraying the characters. Give me feedback. Ideas. Whatever. Just review. Please?**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I don't own Grey's Anatomy. If I did, I wouldn't have been confused about which night the new episode was coming on.**

**I know I'm a horrible updater. It's been weeks and weeks. And I am sincerely sorry. But I am going crazy because I had no idea what to write and my parents aren't here and I have separation anxiety. Anyway, you all are lucky that I have nothing to do today and that I'm in a good mood because my parents are coming home tomorrow. So to recap, last we saw, Meredith and Derek were baby-sitting his nephew. Oh and I made a mistake, in the last chapter I wrote that Derek has 3 sisters, but he has 4. My bad.**

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"_This kind of talk will lead us somewhere…"_

Since the night they had babysat Matt, Derek and Meredith hadn't seen other all that much. Something had happened during the conversation they were having at children and Derek's problems with Addison.

Meredith, as usual, was running late for work because either Izzie or George hadn't gotten up, had a hangover, or couldn't decide what to eat for breakfast. She hurried into the locker room and Cristina gave her an odd look.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Did you kiss Shepherd again?"

"What? No. I'm fine. Nothing's wrong. No kissing. Everything's great," Meredith said changing into her scrubs.

"O'Malley, you're with Dr. Shepherd, Karev, pit, Yang, go with Montgomery-Shepherd, Stevens, you're going to be in the clinic with me and Grey, you're with Sloan" Bailey said, finishing giving her interns their assignments for the day.

"Hot blonde, lucky me," Mark said with a smile, walking up to the group.

"Plastics jackass, lucky me," Meredith mocked as she caught up with Mark, "What are we doing today?"

"Hopefully each other," Mark winked.

"It's going to be a long day," she muttered as she followed Mark down the hall and into the patients room.

"Dr. Grey, this is Jen Tanner. Jen, this is Dr. Grey, my intern. Something about a teaching hospital," Mark said rolling his eyes.

The day ended up being not as bad as Meredith had anticipated. She had scrubbed in on Jen's surgery and Mark had let her help, something he rarely did. They came out of the OR smiling and talking about the successful surgery that they had just performed.

Derek watched Meredith talking and flirting with Mark from down the hall. She was laughing and having a great time while Mark had the same look in his eye that showed exactly what he wanted from her, or any attractive woman for that matter.

"Meredith, may I speak with you for a moment?"

Derek grabbed Meredith's elbow and pulled her into the on-call room next to where she and Mark and had been standing. He looked around to make sure nobody was walking before closing the door. When he turned around, Meredith was facing him, her arms crossed and an angry look on her face.

"You can't flirt with Mark." Derek argued.

"Why not?" Meredith asked, beginning to get angry.

"Well for one thing he's your boss…"

"Seriously? Derek! You're my boss. You flirt with me all the time." Meredith yelled.

"Yeah but you and I are friends," Derek said, not realizing that what he said didn't matter until after it came out.

"How do you know Mark and I aren't friends?" Meredith asked.

"Mark doesn't have female friends. He's a manwhore."

"Bailey is on my ass, Derek. I can't talk about this right now," she said, reaching to open the door.

"Meredith, wait. Just…don't flirt with him anymore, okay?" Derek said, rubbing his temples

"Derek, you're not my boyfriend, you're my boss. And you're married. You have Addison. You have no right to tell me who to flirt with and who not to flirt with," Meredith said angrily.

Derek took a deep breath before walking over and taking Meredith's head in his hands and kissing her. Without thinking, Meredith wrapped her arms around Derek's neck and let him push her up against the wall as he began to rain kisses down her neck. Before it could get any farther, Meredith's pager went off.

"Shit," she mumbled as Derek backed up to allow her to look at her pager, "It's Bailey. I have to go."

Meredith rushed out of the room leaving Derek sitting on the floor with his head in his hands.

"_We're gettin' way too close to going there…"_

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**Uh Oh! What's going to happen? You'll have to wait to find out. Sorry it's short and it kind of sucks. Next update should be sometime mid-week. My family is going to be here for Passover and I have to work a couple days, so I'm not sure what day exactly it's going to be. Oh and baseball season starts, so, I'm extremely happy. Okay, that's enough. You know what to do. Read and Review!!!!!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy. If I did, it would be on every night (unless the Orioles were on.)**

**I'm glad you all liked the last chapter and I'm sorry it was kind of short. I have a really bad cold and I thought maybe writing would take my mind off of feeling like I'm dying so that's precisely what I'm going to do. So, when we last left off, Derek was jealous that Meredith was flirting with Mark and then they kissed. **

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"_In a way I know my heart is waking up…"_

After the kiss in the on-call room, Meredith had been successful in avoiding Derek. She took a couple days off to, "visit her mother," which was the truth, but she wasn't going to meet her for lunch like she had told the chief. And on the days that she was at the hospital, she was lucky enough to have Bailey not assign her to Derek's service.

Meredith was in a rush on her first day back from her mini-vacation that as she was digging through the pile of stuff in her car to find her scrub top, she didn't notice Derek's car pull up beside her. She finally found what she was looking far and closed the door to her car, only to turn around and see Derek leaning against his car with his signature smirk on his face.

"Crap."

"Crap!" Derek repeated.

"Hi. I'm late," Meredith said, trying to get away from him as soon as possible.

"You're avoiding me," Derek said, trying to catch up to her hurried pace.

"Yes. But also late."

"Are we gonna talk about this" he asked.

"No," Meredith said flat out, as she waited for the elevator.

"Meredith…"

"I can't talk right now. I'm late and Bailey's already annoyed with me."

Derek chuckled as he watched Meredith walk away in a huff. There was something about this petite girl that got him. And she looked especially cute when she was angry. Married, he had to remind himself. We're friends. I'm married to Addison, Derek repeated to himself as he tried to get the thoughts of Meredith out of his mind.

As Derek went to check on his patients, Meredith went to the intern locker room to ready herself for the start of her shift.

"Look who's back," Cristina said, closing her locker.

"Hello to you too," Meredith answered pulling on her scrubs.

"How's Mommy?"

"Huh?"

"Alright Mer. What's going on? And don't say nothing because you know I'll find out eventually. So let's hear it."

Meredith sighed and closed her locker, "Fine," she whispered, "Derek and I got into a fight."

"That's all? Please."

"And we kissed," she admitted.

"You kissed McDreamy again?" Christina said loudly.

"Cristina!"

"Oh. Sorry. I forgot he's married," Christina answered sarcastically.

"What the hell am I going to do," Meredith whined, lightly banging her head on the locker in front of her.

"First thing your going to do is stop banging your head on that locker so your not the one who needs the neuro consult," Bailey said, suddenly appearing, "O'Malley, you're with Burke, Stevens, stick to me today, Karev, go with Sloane, Yang, pit, and Grey, special request from Dr. Shepherd."

"Bailey, could I take the pit today?" Meredith asked, almost begging.

"What do you think?"

"Consult with Dr. Shepherd."

"Good. Go." Bailey commanded.

Meredith caught up with Derek at the nurses station and stood next to him as he finished filling out charts from his post-op patients.

"You requested me, Dr. Shepherd," Meredith said.

"Since when did you call me Dr. Shepherd?" he asked, putting his pen back in his pocket.

"Since I was your intern and you were my boss. What are we doing today?" Meredith asked, trying to be as professional as possible and ignore the stray curl on Derek's forehead that she had to the urge to fix.

"Meredith…"

"Derek please."

Derek sensed the urgency in her voice and decided to let it go for now. Something was happening between them and the hospital was not the right place to figure out what that was. Especially with Derek's wife walking around in the same hospital, liable to approach at any moment.

"Okay. We've got a 45 year old male, fell and hit his head. He's coming in an out of consciousness so we need a CT. Wife says he's been having headaches for the past month or so too."

"I'm on it," Meredith said, leaving Derek as quickly as she could.

He watched her walk away, wishing he could once again pull her into an on-call room and kiss her, forgetting all about the troubles in their friendship and the fact that he was married.

Derek caught up with Meredith at CT as she waited for the results to come up on the screen.

"What do we have?" he asked, sitting on the desk next to her.

"Still waiting," she answered, leaning back in the chair.

They sat there in silence as the patients results appeared on the computer.

"Look at that," Derek said.

"Aneurysm."

"Let's let his family know he's going to need surgery and then get him prepped for craniotomy," Derek instructed her as the nurse took the patient back to his room and they stepped into the elevator.

"Am I scrubbing in?"

"Of course," Derek answered, "After the surgery do you want to go grab something to eat Mer?"

"No. I can't." Meredith lied.

She could. She wanted to more than anything. But the more time that she spent with him, the more feelings she developed.

"Why not? We're friends. Friends go out."

"No. We can't be friends anymore," Meredith said as she walked out of the elevator.

"Meredith, what is going on? Derek asked.

This wasn't the same Meredith he had seen before. She was open to being friends. She wanted to do friend things. Hang out, have lunch and have their movie nights. But now she was pushing him away and he had no idea what the reason was.

"I think I'm in love with you," she said in almost a whisper as the elevator doors closed in front of her.

"_As all the walls come tumbling down…"_

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**I feel like this story is going nowhere. I don't want to go right to Derek breaking up with Addison because we all know that's not how it goes. But I also don't want it to keep going this slow. I need some ideas. Please share some ideas with me. And you'll definitely get credit. Read and Review!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: My name is not Shonda Rhimes; therefore I don't own Grey's Anatomy. **

I've been trying to post this for a REALLY long time but for some reason I couldn't. Everytime I tried I would get an error message. Just so you know, next update maybe Thursday, if not, then sometime next week cuz Saturday is my 18th birthday!!

**Thank you times a million to IslandGurl90 for all her ideas. This chapter is dedicated to you!! Because if it hadn't been for your ideas, I'd still be stuck. You all might hate me for what I'm about to do…introducing a certain male character that we all love to hate. I think you know whom I'm talking about. But it had to be done to make the story move along. **

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_"When I first met you I already knew…"_

This wasn't Meredith Grey. Meredith Grey didn't admit that she was in love, especially to extremely sexy married neurosurgeons whom she had only known for a month. Yet, on that night, that was exactly what she found herself doing as she left the elevator to go inform her patient that he was going to need a craniotomy, performed by non-other than that same doctor who she was in love with.

This definitely wasn't the way she had imagined her internship beginning. She didn't expect it to be smooth sailing, being an intern in any career never is, but she sure as hell couldn't have predicted what was going to happen. It was like the kind of cheesy romantic movie that Meredith had always hated. And now she was stuck. With no clue how to pull herself out of the mud that she was quickly getting deeper and deeper in.

After the craniotomy, Meredith left the OR as quickly as possible, disappearing before Derek even noticed she was gone. She went to the locker room, changed, and left the hospital without speaking to anyone. She needed something to get her through the night. Tequila was her first thought. No. She had to work tomorrow. Ice cream would have to do. Meredith decided to make a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up her favorite Ben and Jerry's flavor before heading home.

She was just about finished picking out her ice cream when she closed the door to the freezer in the grocery store only to turn around and knock completely into another customer.

"I'm so sorry," Meredith said, picking up what she had dropped.

"My fault. I wasn't watching where I was going," the man responded.

Meredith stood up and took a good look at who she had just bumped into. He was handsome. Not Derek handsome. But definitely handsome. Maybe tonight wouldn't be as bad as she thought it was going to be.

"I'm Finn Dandridge," he said, introducing himself.

"Meredith Grey."

"Bad day?" Finn asked, gesturing to all of the ice cream in Meredith's basket.

"You have no idea," Meredith answered.

"I probably didn't help by just crashing into you."

Meredith just smiled a little, "Actually, it was one of the better parts of the day."

"So you're a doctor," Finn said, gesturing to the hospital ID that Meredith had forgotten to take off of her sweater.

"Surgical intern."

"Ah, I remember when I was intern."

"You're a doctor too" Meredith asked, intrigued.

"Veterinarian," he corrected.

They continued their discussion all the way through the checkout line and Finn even treated Meredith to the four pints of ice cream that were in her cart.

"This may seem kind of forward, but are you single?" Finn asked as they approached the exit from the store.

"Single?" Meredith asked as if she didn't know what the word meant.

Of course she was single. She didn't have a boyfriend. She wasn't married like Derek. But she and Derek had something. Some sort of relationship that hadn't been named yet And until it got a name, Meredith decided she was single. There was no use in sitting around pining over a married man. At least that's what she tried to convince herself while standing in the front of the grocery store.

Finn kind of laughed at the expression at Meredith's face and nodded in reply.

"Yes. I'm single. I don't have a boyfriend who's married," Meredith said, giving too much information as she so often did

"Well, since you don't have a boyfriend who's married, and I happen to be single too, would you like to go out some time?"

Meredith accepted Finn's invitation to go out, they exchanged phone numbers and she headed home to eat the ice cream that she had just been accidentally treated to. But there was a little nagging voice in the back of her head, screaming Derek's voice. She felt almost as if she was cheating on him. She continuously reminded herself that no matter how strong her feelings were, he was married, and they couldn't be together.

She and Izzie were sitting in bed, eating out of the container of strawberry ice cream, when they heard the doorbell ring and a male's voice from downstairs. As soon as the voice had stopped, George appeared in Meredith's room.

"Meredith, there's somebody in the kitchen who wants to talk to you," George said unenthusiastically as he headed into his room to go to sleep.

Meredith grabbed the container away from and walked down the stairs. She nearly choked on the mouthful of ice cream when she saw Derek standing in the kitchen.

"Derek," she said, her mouth full.

He laughed as she attempted to swallow the freezing cold dessert.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, when she had finally swallowed.

She had succeeded in getting away from him after the surgery for the specific reason of not wanting to talk about the fact that she had admitted that she was in love with him. And now here was, standing in front of her in the kitchen, looking just as McDreamy as ever.

"We need to talk. About what you said in the elevator today."

"Wow. You're really big on this whole talking thing aren't you?" she answered, thinking back to when he was pushing her to have a discussion about their kiss.

"Were you serious about what you said?"

Meredith could barely look Derek in the eye. She wished she could deny it and lie and say that what she had said wasn't true, but there was no way.

"100 percent."

"Oh."

"Oh?" Meredith said, raising her eyebrows, "Oh? Seriously? I tell you that I'm in love with you and you say 'oh'. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Mer…"

"No. You don't get to call me Mer. You have a wife. A beautiful fabulous leggy wife who makes me feel like an ogre."

"I think I'm in love with you too," he said.

Meredith stood there in shock. Here she was, trying to move on from something that she never even really had. She accepted a date with the nice vet. And now Derek had to say 'I think I'm in love with you too.' Crap, was the only thing that went through her head. Along with a little bit of, OH MY GOD!!!!

"Derek, don't say that if you don't mean it."

"I mean it."

They stood there in silence for a few minutes, each thinking over the situation in their head.

"So what do we do now?" Meredith asked, breaking the silence.

"I don't know," Derek answered, squeezing the bridge of his nose like he always did when something was confusing, "But for right now, let's just keep this between us. I don't need this getting to Addison. Or Mark. So we'll figure it out."

"Yeah. We'll figure it out," she answered, her voice agreeing but definitely not her heart or her head.

"Okay. Goodnight," Derek said, walking out of the kitchen, "Oh and Meredith?"

"Yeah?" she asked, turning back around just as she was about to go back up the stairs.

"Nice job today."

_"I was breaking my own heart when I fell for you…"_

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**Um, so I love this chapter. The end. I don't have anything more to say. But I think you guys should say something in a little thing called reviews. **


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Grey's Anatomy. **

**So, the bottom line is I suck. At updating that is. It's been, gosh I don't even know how long. And I sincerely apologize. But I was trying to keep my grades up so I could graduate. And then I was getting ready for graduation. And then I was graduating. And then I was at the beach. And then I was doing other stuff. Basically, I procrastinate. But I'm back. This chapter jumps ahead a bit, a few months maybe, so Burke (who's not fired from this story) and Cristina are about to get married and Meredith and Finn are dating (sorry!).**

_"Baby it's just you and me, we got a thing they can't shake…_ " 

Finn was great. He was the perfect boyfriend. He opened the door for Meredith on dates, and brought her flowers and kissed her goodnight. But there was one thing he wasn't. Derek. Meredith and Finn had been together for 2 months, long enough that she was willing to let him call her his girlfriend. And she called him her boyfriend. Except to Derek.

Derek knew about Finn. He had found out about it when Finn made unexpected visits to the hospital and when he showed up to try to talk to Meredith, only to interrupt a date. They just didn't say the word boyfriend. It hurt Derek too much to think of Meredith with another man and the only man Meredith wanted to use the word boyfriend with was Derek. And today, Meredith not only had to deal with one Shepherd, but two. Derek had made plans to go over to Meredith's house after both of their shifts were over and help her cook for Cristina's bachelorette party. But she was also lucky enough to have been assigned by Bailey to Addison's service for the day.

"Iz" Meredith called through the hallway to Izzie as she was heading to meet up with Addison.

"Hey Mer, shouldn't with be with Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd?"

"I'm on my way. I just wanted to let you know that I need to the kitchen tonight. So no baking."

"Why? You can't cook."

"Believe me I know. Derek, he's um…coming over…he makes really good lasagna so he's going to help me make some for Cristina's bachelorette party," Meredith explained.

"Seriously? Derek? Mer, are you sure that's a good idea. I mean, I know you two say you're just friends, but I think we all…"

"Thanks Iz. I know what's going on with me and Derek, but I need him to help me with this so, we're just going to have to get through it. I've gotta go find Addison but I'll see you at lunch," Meredith said hurrying off, and avoiding conversation about Derek.

Meredith hurried into the patient's room, to see Addison giving the patient an ultrasound that she should probably be doing, had she been on time.

"Nice of you to join me Dr. Grey," Addison said, sarcastically.

"Sorry. I'm here now." Meredith replied, a bit out of breathe.

"This is Danielle Beckett. She's 18 weeks, in for an amniocentesis because her last child has Down's syndrome. I need you to run some labs and let me know when you get the results. I'll be back to check on you later Danielle," Addison gave the patient a smile and Meredith a glare before leaving.

"Damn. What'd you do to piss her off?" Danielle asked.

"I'm an intern," Meredith said, and I'm in love with her husband she thought to herself.

Meredith knew that Addison knew about she and Derek's flirting and odd relationship. Gossip spread around the hospital like wildfire, especially when it involved the dreamy neurosurgeon and a lowly intern. But she was almost 100 percent sure that Derek hadn't told his wife that he was in love with another woman.

"I heard she's the best there is. And a lucky woman too. I heard one of the nurses talking about her husband."

"She is the best," Meredith replied, without a word about Derek.

"And her husband? Is he really as hot as they all say?" Danielle asked as Meredith drew blood from her arm.

"Um…" Meredith stammered, "Derek is…I don't think Addison wants me to talk about her personal life. I'm going to take these results to the lab," she said quickly, taking off her gloves.

"He must be something if he has you stuttering like that."

"I have to go. Dr. Shepherd and I will be back with you later."

The rest of the day went by slowly. As usual, Meredith spent lunchtime with Izzie and George. Bailey had commanded that Cristina take the next couple of days off to prepare for the wedding, not without objection of course. After lunch, Meredith went to the lab to get Danielle's test results and then found Addison at the nurse's station.

"Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd?"

"Can I do something for you Dr. Grey?"

"I have the labs on Danielle Beckett that you asked for. Everything looks good. Are we going to go ahead with the amnio?"

"Yes. Go ahead and prep a room and do a final ultrasound."

The amnio was completed without complications. Addison even let Meredith perform most of it on her own. After the procedure was done, Meredith went to the locker room to meet up with Izzie and George and head home for the evening to get ready for her night of cooking with Derek.

"Izzie, did you buy all of the other stuff for the bachelorette party?" Meredith asked, frantically searching for the ingredients that Derek had told her to buy.

"Yes. For saying your just friends, you're awfully anxious about this."

"I just…Finn, and…Derek and I are friends. We are just friends. And he's helping me cook. That's the kind of things friends do. Plus, I'm the maid of honor; he's the best man. We're cooking together. It makes sense. Plus, we're just friends."

"It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself of that, Mer."

A knock on the door interrupted her reply, and Meredith went to the door to let Derek in.

"Hey," Meredith said with a smile reserved just for Derek.

"Hey yourself."

"Did you buy everything I told you to get?" Derek asked as they headed into the kitchen.

"Yeah. And some extra because knowing how I cook it might take a few tries to get this right."

"Don't worry. Chef Derek will keep you in line," he winked.

"Smart ass," she giggled, hitting him on the stomach.

"If you guys don't stop flirting and start cooking we won't have anything to eat tomorrow night," Izzie said.

"We're not flirting," they said in unison.

"Yeah, and I have 8.7 million dollars. I'll be upstairs if the kitchen starts to burn," she said heading up the stairs.

"Okay, lets get started," Derek said, clapping his hands together, "God knows how long this is going to take with you helping me."

"Hey! I'm not that bad…okay yes I am. I should have just ordered take-out instead I got stuck with you," she said, playfully shoving him.

"Take-out doesn't even compare to my lasagna."

"Well, I guess we'll find out won't we?" Meredith smiled.

They started cooking, Derek made the sauce and Meredith put the first layer of cheese and pasta down in the pan, with some direction from Derek here and there.

"How's the sauce coming?" Meredith asked, leaning over Derek, "It smells amazing."

"That's because it tastes amazing," he lifted the spoon to his lips and took a taste, before making a face.

"What? Did you ruin it? Derek, you told me you were the best at…"

"It's fine. Just needs a little bit of salt."

Meredith handed Derek the salt shaker and watched as he put a little bit in and then stirred it up and then took another taste.

"It's perfect," he said, putting some more on the spoon and reached over to give Meredith a taste.

Derek hadn't been lying when he said he was the best at this. The sauce was the most delicious thing she had tasted in a long time, besides one of Izzie's cakes.

"Oh my gosh, that is…so good," Meredith said, licking the rest off of her lips.

Derek laughed; "Mer, you've got some sauce right…" he walked over to her and leaned close to her face to wipe the sauce off of the edge of her lip.

Before Meredith could get the sauce off of her lips with her fingers, Derek was getting it off with his own lips.

Derek's arms looped around Meredith's waist while hers wrapped around his neck. The kiss started small and continued to become more passionate, their tongues battling for power. Meredith let out a small moan as Derek lightly traced his tongue along Meredith's tips, teasing her.

Meredith's heart began to race as her tongue entangled with Derek's. She knew this was wrong. Derek was married and she was in a relationship with Finn. But while it was wrong, it felt completely right. Being in Derek's arms was exactly where Meredith felt like she belonged.

But any thoughts or reason were erased from her mind as Derek began to suck and gently nip at her neck, Derek laughing at Meredith's reaction of giggles and gasps. Meredith moved one of her hands to the back of Derek's neck as she pulled him back up and kissed his lips more urgently than before.

"Achem…"

They broke apart quickly to see Izzie standing at the door to the kitchen with her hands on her hips, looking like a mother who had just caught her teenage daughter with her first boyfriend.

"I should go," Derek said, "Just you know, put the sauce on and then another layer of pasta and then bake it for 20 minutes or so. Call me if you…Izzie probably knows what to do. I'll see you at the wedding," he finished, leaving as quickly as the kiss had begun.

"Meredith…" Izzie started.

"I know. It's just…"

"What about Finn?"

"Finn is…great. He's amazing."

"Then what are you doing with Derek?"

"I'm not doing anything with Derek. He's married."

"That didn't look like not doing anything. Meredith, you owe it to yourself, to Finn and to Derek to figure this out before you all get hurt."

"I know, I know…" Meredith said, as she started to finish lasagna with the instructions Derek had left her with.

_"Maybe it's a little hard sometimes to take…"_

**Don't really know how I feel about this chapter. As usual, I'm really, extremely insecure about my writing. But I have some ideas for what's going to happen in this story. Hopefully, I'll be able to write the next chapter tomorrow. But we'll see. If I get lots of reviews, I'll be more motivated to write more!!! I hope you're all still reading!!**

**Read and Review!!**


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